LANSING, MICH. A new residential and commercial building will be constructed in downtown Trenton with the help of a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) brownfield redevelopment grant. The city of Trenton was awarded a $200,000 grant to revitalize and safely reuse a former gas station and car repair at the corner of West Jefferson and West Road.

Soil and groundwater were contaminated by gasoline from a leaking underground storage tank. The brownfield grant will be used to remove three underground storage tanks, contaminated soil and buried building foundations.

Jefferson Place, LLC will construct a building with apartments and office and retail space on the site. The $3,500,000 redevelopment in Trenton’s central business district will bring new energy and jobs to the city’s downtown.

The MDEQ partners with communities to protect public health and the environment and revitalize contaminated property. MDEQ grants and loans pay for environmental investigation and cleanup on brownfields. Brownfields are vacant or abandoned properties with known or suspected environmental contamination.

Partnerships between MDEQ and communities have created $4 billion in private investment and 29,000 new jobs over the life of the Brownfield Redevelopment Program. Each grant and loan dollar invested by the MDEQ in 2017 to protect residents and the environment is expected to return an average of $32 to the state’s economy. When brownfields are redeveloped, property values increase both on the revitalized site and on other nearby properties. Learn more at www.michigan.gov/deqbrownfields.